Transcripts - National Knowledge Commission

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Intro <ul><li>The National Knowledge Commission is a high-level advisory body to the Prime Minister of India, with the objective of transforming India into a knowledge society. </li></ul><ul><li>On 13th June, 2005 , the Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh, constituted the NKC , as a think-tank charged with considering possible policy that might sharpen India's comparative advantage in the knowledge-intensive service sectors </li></ul>

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Areas of Focus <ul><li>It covers sectors ranging from education to e-governance in the five focus areas of the knowledge paradigm: </li></ul><ul><li>Access easy access to knowledge </li></ul><ul><li>Concepts all levels and forms of education </li></ul><ul><li>Creation effective creation of knowledge </li></ul><ul><li>Applications of knowledge systems </li></ul><ul><li>Services like e-governance </li></ul>

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Access to Knowledge <ul><li>Literacy- </li></ul><ul><li>Some of the issues under consideration of National Knowledge Commission are: </li></ul><ul><li>Re-evaluation of the National Literacy Mission </li></ul><ul><li>Multi-pronged approach for literacy initiatives like use of ICT in literacy programmes or computer enabled learning </li></ul><ul><li>Material development and training </li></ul><ul><li>New ideas in terms of innovative concepts and initiatives in literacy </li></ul><ul><li>Equivalence with formal and non-formal educational system </li></ul>

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Access to Knowledge <ul><li>Language </li></ul><ul><li>English language, is perhaps becoming the most important determinant of access to higher education, employment possibilities and social opportunities. School leavers who are not adequately trained in English as a language are always at a handicap in the world of higher education. And those who do not know English well enough, find it exceedingly difficult to compete for a place in our premier educational institutions. This disadvantage is accentuated further in the world of work, not only in professional occupations but also in white-collar occupations. </li></ul><ul><li>NKC is trying to overcome this problem . </li></ul>

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Access to Knowledge <ul><li>Translation </li></ul><ul><li>Some of the issues under consideration of National Knowledge Commission are: </li></ul><ul><li>Development of translation as an industry </li></ul><ul><li>Promotion of printed as well as virtual publications </li></ul><ul><li>Translate pedagogic materials and providing quality training for translation </li></ul><ul><li>Projection of Indian languages and other literatures in South Asia </li></ul><ul><li>Establishing a storehouse of information on translation </li></ul>

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Access to Knowledge <ul><li>Libraries </li></ul><ul><li>Some of the issues under consideration of National Knowledge Commission are: </li></ul><ul><li>institutional framework of libraries; </li></ul><ul><li>networking; </li></ul><ul><li>education, training and research; </li></ul><ul><li>modernization and computerization of libraries; </li></ul><ul><li>maintenance of private and personal collections and </li></ul><ul><li>staff requirements to meet changing needs. </li></ul>

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Access to Knowledge <ul><li>Networks </li></ul><ul><li>National Knowledge Commission undertook a project to explore the possibility of establishing an efficient and cost effective network design to interconnect all Universities, R&D institutions, S&T institutions; Health service facilities, Agriculture research and extension institutions and Libraries in the country with an access speed of at least 100 Mbps. </li></ul>

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Access to Knowledge <ul><li>Portals </li></ul><ul><li>NKC has adopted the following procedure for setting up of public portals on certain key sectors: </li></ul><ul><li>Identification of champion/lead organization/s. </li></ul><ul><li>Submission of proposal on architecture of the portal by the champion organization/s for consideration of the Commission. </li></ul><ul><li>Identification of stakeholders and partners and setting up of framework for portal management. </li></ul><ul><li>Development of content. </li></ul><ul><li>Launch of Portal </li></ul>

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Creation <ul><li>Science and Technology </li></ul><ul><li>Some of the issues under consideration of National Knowledge Commission are: </li></ul><ul><li>Identifying and removing hurdles in obtaining funding for research </li></ul><ul><li>Identifying some of the major unsolved problems in S&T, where India can play a significant leadership role </li></ul><ul><li>Identifying and setting up of studies on futuristic interdisciplinary areas in S&T </li></ul><ul><li>Envisaging the use of S&T as a crucial tool for development and facilitating the use of S&T to solving problems of the poor and the underprivileged </li></ul>

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Creation <ul><li>Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) </li></ul><ul><li>Key systemic issues in this regard are: </li></ul><ul><li>clearly defined contractual rights and obligations enshrined in the law; </li></ul><ul><li>respect for law; </li></ul><ul><li>development of effective legal systems for enforcement; </li></ul><ul><li>availability of accurate and detailed ready-to-use IPR information; opportunity for continual training of IPR professionals across sectors; </li></ul><ul><li>creation and development of modern infrastructure, including human resources in the various IPR offices; </li></ul><ul><li>harmonization and streamlining of administrative procedures of the different IPR offices and perhaps most significantly, </li></ul><ul><li>the development of a vibrant IPR culture in the processes of knowledge creation, application and dissemination, all of which are connected with market demand and rewards. </li></ul>

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Creation <ul><li>Innovation </li></ul><ul><li>The National Knowledge Commission envisages a national innovation system, where entrepreneurship at the local and national levels is encouraged, and inter-disciplinary studies in S&T are undertaken in order to encourage new approaches and methodologies. </li></ul>

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Creation <ul><li>Entrepreneurship </li></ul><ul><li>The National Knowledge Commission aims to explore the part played by Entrepreneurship in India's economic growth and competitiveness, and in generating opportunities for wealth creation and social good. </li></ul>

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Application <ul><li>Traditional Knowledge </li></ul><ul><li>The NKC is looking at the following aspects of traditional knowledge: </li></ul><ul><li>The principles and basic premises that should govern the documentation and use of our traditional knowledge - that is, our creative, cultural and legacy industries. </li></ul><ul><li>Plant-based drug formulations of which we have over 40,000 that have come to us through the Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha, Tibetian (all documented) and the non-documented tribal systems of medicine. </li></ul><ul><li>Traditional agricultural practices of which 4502 have been documented by the ICAR in a series of volumes, with 86 having been validated and 38 cross-validated till December 2005. </li></ul><ul><li>Our culinary traditions which use some 150 documented vegetables for which nutritional and other information is available, and an equal number of fruits. </li></ul><ul><li>Culture-specific tourism, for example, through identification of tribal art centres, promoting authentic local performing arts, and making use of the unusual sites and practices that we have in our country. </li></ul><ul><li>Traditional water harvesting practices which have been well-documented, for example in a book brought out by CSE, New Delhi. </li></ul><ul><li>Our traditional products, services and art forms that are not included above. </li></ul>

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Services <ul><li>e-Governance </li></ul><ul><li>Some of the benefits of e-Governance include: </li></ul><ul><li>Reducing the cost and improving the reach and quality of public services. </li></ul><ul><li>Reducing transaction costs and transaction times. </li></ul><ul><li>Empowering citizens and increasing transparency </li></ul><ul><li>Re-engineering of processes for greater efficiency and productivity. </li></ul>

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Services <ul><li>e-Governance </li></ul><ul><li>KNC highlight the need to: </li></ul><ul><li>Re-engineer government processes first, to change our basic governance pattern for simplicity, transparency, productivity and efficiency. </li></ul><ul><li>Select 10 to 20 important services that make a critical difference, simplify them and offer them as web-based services. </li></ul><ul><li>Develop common standards and deploy common platform/infrastructure for e-governance. </li></ul><ul><li>Begin all new national programmes (like Bharat Nirman, Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, etc.) with well-engineered e-governance implementation and web interface. </li></ul>